‘Shark Tank’ review: Define Bottle, Henry’s Humdingers, Boo Boo Goo, and iRetron

This episode of “Shark Tank” was really a fun one across the board, mostly because there was a lot of positive energy when dealing with some of the young entrepreneurs that were at the focus of this. There wasn’t any babying or hand-holding in here, either. They were all treated in the same way that anyone else would be upon entry to the tank, and we very much appreciate that.

As always, we want to make it easy on you to discover all of the products that are featured on the show, so thanks to that, all you have to do is click on the individual names below to be taken to their official websites.

Define Bottle (seeking $200,000 for 10% of the company) – When it comes to the product, we understand that it looks pretty nifty, and also injects your water with a little bit of fruit flavor. Here is where the problems come into play: There are dozens of other bottles out there that can fulfill a similar purpose, and this one is pretty expensive and also pretty big. You have to remember some of this stuff when you are actually carrying it with you on a daily basis. No deal.

iRetron (seeking $200,000 for 10% of the company) – How is this guy getting away with the lower-case i in the name? Isn’t that something that Apple is going to be pretty upset about? The idea of the business is nice, but there is absolutely nothing in here that is proprietary. We also didn’t really get the whole idea of “social responsibility” with this so much, mostly because we’ve seen regular salespeople advertise trading in everything from used jewelry  to electronics for money. How is this so different?

The thing that made this stand out was Jason, the 16-year old running the company. The investment that was made by Barbara Corcoran and Mark Cuban here was more in him, we feel, than this company, and it was an interesting deal: He got what he asked for, but the two sharks also get 10% each of any future business that he starts in the next five years.

Boo Boo Goo – The reason that we didn’t want to give away the website for this product during our preview article yesterday was because it gave away the outcome of the deal. Kevin O’Leary invested in them contingent on a patent getting through, and they saw it as a licensing play. Based on the website, we like to think that this was successful. It makes sense, given that we think that this is a good product. It’s fun, and an interesting alternative to bandages out there.

Henry’s Humdingers – We really like this product, probably even more so than any other one in this episode. Why? We like twists on popular foods, especially when it changes up the daily routine. Spicy honey may or may not be delicious; we haven’t tried it. But, we’re interested to. This is a product that we would actually buy, and that may be only the fourth or fifth time that we have said that all season long.

As for whether or not we would invest, that is a far more complicated question to answer. We appreciate a lot of what this business has going for it, but you are putting a ton of pressure on a teenager. Plus, grocery items are a huge gamble. But, Henry was lucky to have someone like Mark Cuban on the panel who was very interested in the product, and he did something with Robert Herjavec that he had never done before: Took a majority share. He and Robert now own three-quarters of the company for $300,000, and that to us is a win. Henry can pay back his parents, and he actually has a chance at seeing his business thrive with someone else in the driver’s seat.

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Photo: ABC